The Seventh Element

by Wendy Mass

  Dash let out a long sigh of relief when Chris’s face popped up on the small screen. A splotch of oil streaked across Chris’s cheek, and he looked tired. “Chris!” Dash said hurriedly. “We sounded the horn, but the king wants to be sure we really came with you before he helps us. Can you tell him?”

  “They let you sound the horn?” Chris asked, squinting up at him.

  Dash glanced at his friends before answering. “Well, not so much let us, exactly, but they did say they’d help if you tell them—”

  “Yes,” Chris interrupted. “These children are with me. Thank you for letting them continue their very important mission.”

  Gabriel and Siena both bristled at being called children. The elves in the room murmured excitedly. Here was the famous Chrysanthemum!

  “And in return you will take the horn with you?” the king asked Chris, although it sounded more like a command than a question.

  “Yes, yes,” Chris promised.

  “How will you—”

  But Chris interrupted again. “We will take care of it. I must go.” Dash’s screen turned dark.

  The king sputtered for a few seconds, clearly not used to being dismissed.

  “Um, he’s really busy with ship stuff,” Siena said, trying to smooth things over.

  “You have one day,” the king snapped, “not a second more. Lythe! Tumar!” The two horn guards snapped to attention. “Since you seem to think we can trust these strangers, you will accompany them. And this time I expect you will keep a closer eye on them, yes?” Without another word, he stormed off down the stairs, waving for the other elves to follow him. Tumar and Lythe stayed behind. Gabriel, Siena, and Dash went to the window to join Piper and plan their next move.

  “I feel a little bad saying this,” Piper said when they were alone, “but did Chris seem unusually rude to the king just now?”

  “Totally,” Siena said.

  “Dash?” Siena said, waving her hands in front of his face to get his attention. He hadn’t looked up from his arm since the call. “Dash? Didn’t you think Chris was kind of obnoxious?”

  Dash shook his head. When he finally looked up, his face had gone pale, even paler than usual. When he spoke, his tone was grim.

  “That wasn’t Chris.”

  The storehouse of axes and shields were right where the ogres had left them, tucked underneath an outcrop of rocks by the shoreline. The site was only visible when the suns set and cast a certain light on the rocks, showing the ogres where their sacred stash was kept, ensuring that the elves would never find their stores. The ogres did not know exactly how much time had passed, for the forest and the shore and the mountain peaks they used to call home looked the same as they remembered. Only the rust on the locks and the warping of the door hinted at the years. The weapons themselves—having been treated with grease made from worm guts and the ogres’ own saliva—remained shiny and sharp.

  Now armed, the ogres made their plan. Half wanted to attack the elves right away, to chop at their precious tree branches. The elves would chase them with their swords and spears, but they would get some good swings in first. The other half of the ogres wanted to climb the mountain and awaken the dragons. While it would be satisfying to see tree limbs fall, it would be glorious to watch the trees burn.

  It was decided that half the ogres would ascend the mountain. Once at home on the high, windy peaks, they would do as they’d always done—prod and taunt the ferocious winged beasts until down they flew, breathing their fiery anger upon the elves’ village.

  The other half of the ogres would remain below to generally raise a ruckus and start trouble.

  Before going their separate ways, the two halves faced each other in long, even rows. They stuck out their axes, clanged them together, grunted, and smacked foreheads.

  They were ready.

  —

  The ground crew along with Lythe and Tumar raced back through the woods. Dash was trying to contact the ship, but no one was answering. Fighting off his rising panic, he said, “We have to focus on our mission here. Colin can’t take the ship anywhere without us. There’s no way to get the ship back in Gamma.” He needed the crew to believe everything on the Cloud Leopard was fine. Even if he didn’t believe it himself.

  “Wait,” Tumar said, grabbing Dash’s arm. The group stopped running, panting to catch their breath. “If you have a plan, we need to know what it is. King Urelio will not—”

  “King Urelio only gave us one day to complete this mission,” Dash interrupted. “I promise you, I will tell you our plan, but we have little time and need to keep moving.”

  Dash turned to start running again, but Tumar thrust his spear in Dash’s face. “We’re not going anywhere until Lythe and I know the plan.”

  Following Tumar’s cue, Lythe lifted her spear as well, if only halfheartedly.

  Dash glared at Tumar. This was just what they needed: unhelpful elves. “The plan is to complete our mission as quickly as possible. And that means running. Now.”

  “Look,” Gabriel said, stepping forward and nearly tripping over a large tree root. “Dash is right—we need to keep moving. What if the ogres woke up, realized they haven’t eaten in a hundred years, and decided to raid your village first? The sooner we get this plan in action, the sooner we can save all of you from ever having to deal with the ogres again.”

  Tumar and Dash continued to glare at one another until Lythe laid her hand gently on Tumar’s arm. “I think we need to go along for now. I trust them,” she said.

  Tumar reluctantly lowered his spear. “Well, I don’t,” he said. “But I’ll trust your judgment. For now. We may continue, but you will tell us of your plan the instant we arrive at this…flying ship.”

  Dash nodded. “Actually,” he said as he turned to run, “we’re not going to our ship.”

  The rest of the ground crew followed him. Tumar and Lythe easily kept pace. “Then how will you get all the way to the mountain in less than a day?” Lythe asked.

  Dash shielded his eyes from the glare of the sun, which was slipping lower into the sky every minute. “With that,” he replied, pointing at the tank that was now sitting at the landing spot. “Our new best friend.”

  —

  Up in the Cloud Leopard, the situation was bleak. Colin, who had pretended to be Chris until now, had his glasses back on and was feeling pretty proud of himself. He was finally in control of the ship and things would be done his way.

  “What have you done to Chris?” Ravi asked, glaring at Colin from about four inches away from his face. They were gathered below the engine room, where Chris lay on the floor of the Cloud Kitten, unconscious. Rocket was whimpering beside him, his paws on Chris’s leg. Carly was the only one missing. Without their MTBs, they didn’t know where she was. She must have taken hers off, or else Colin would have rounded her up too.

  “You better step back, little boy,” Colin warned.

  “Who you calling little?” Ravi said, standing straighter. He was only a few inches shorter than Colin.

  Niko—who was smaller than the rest of the crew by a good six inches and was used to being called little—pulled on Ravi’s arm, but Ravi didn’t budge. You couldn’t grow up in a family as big as Ravi’s and not stand up for yourself. True, usually his approach to confrontation was usually to defuse the situation by telling a joke, but he knew that wouldn’t work here. Plus, he was too angry to joke now.

  “I said, step back!” Colin growled.

  “Or what?” Anna asked, stepping up alongside Ravi.

  “Or I’ll knock you out like I did Chris,” Colin said with a sneer. They didn’t know that technically he couldn’t do that. Only Chris was allergic to the Walla-nika plant he’d discovered in Chris’s room.

  For the first time on the entire voyage, Anna was speechless. Colin was mean and had done some pretty rotten things but never anything so violent. She’d never been truly scared of him until now.

  The truth was that Colin couldn’t hurt them. He needed
them in order to make the Cloud Kitten (how he hated that ridiculous name!) fly on its own.

  So far, Colin had learned a lot about this alien ship. The main engines of the Cloud Leopard and the Cloud Kitten were still linked, but many features now worked independently. Soon the Cloud Kitten would be able to break free. Colin would still need the Source to power it, though; there was no getting around that. And that meant these kids still served a purpose, both on board and on the planet.

  “You have jobs to do,” Colin boomed. His voice was enough to make Anna and Ravi take a step backward. “Now go finish them.”

  “Give us our Mobile Tech Bands back,” Anna demanded. “We can’t do our jobs without being able to communicate with each other. And the ground crew might need us. Judging from how eagerly you asked the elves if the horn had been sounded, you want to get back to Earth now as much as we do.” As soon as she said it, though, a trickle of doubt entered her mind. Did he want to go back? Or did he have some other plan they weren’t aware of?

  Colin pushed the MTBs deeper into his pockets. “You will manage without these. If the ground crew needs anything, I will respond.”

  “He better be okay,” Anna said, gesturing back at Chris. “He’s the only one who knows how to get us home.”

  Ignoring her remark, Colin said, “I don’t want to see the three of you until the ground crew returns. Then everyone will report to me immediately.”

  When they got outside the previously hidden room, Niko said, “He totally doesn’t think Carly’s on the ship. Wouldn’t he have tracked her MTB, like he tracked ours? It should be picking up her vital stats, heart rate, breathing, like always.”

  Ravi felt a shiver of fear. “Last I saw her she was working on the Element Fuser. She’s okay, right?”

  “Let’s go find out,” Anna said, running toward the portal.

  In the engine room, the tank had looked pretty impressive and foreboding—much larger than the watercraft they’d used on Aqua Gen or the Streak they’d driven on Tundra. But in comparison to the huge trees, the tank looked like a small metal box that a giant could crush in his fist like a dry autumn leaf.

  Gabriel climbed in first and gave a long whistle. “This place is swanky!”

  The inside of the tank looked more like a luxury car than a metal war machine. Padded bench seats ran the length of the tank on either side, and cots that pulled down from the walls created instant bunk beds. There were pillows, blankets, and even a collection of plush animals.

  “The ZRKs must have been bored on the long ride in Gamma,” Piper said. Lythe and Tumar stepped in tentatively after her.

  “But does it actually move?” Siena asked, bringing up the rear with Dash.

  “Let’s see what this bad boy can do,” Gabriel said. He turned the large yellow key one notch to the right, and the engine purred to life. Gabriel frowned. He’d expected the loud grinding of gears, the churning of rubber as the wheels kicked up dirt, but the tank moved along smoothly, almost soundlessly. Oh well, at least they were moving.

  Speed proved not to be one of the tank’s strengths. “I think we can walk faster than this,” Gabriel grumbled. Siena settled in the back of the tank. Tumar and Lythe perched uneasily together on the seat next to Gabriel.

  Piper swung out of her chair and slid over next to Dash, who was trying to keep his breathing even so the others wouldn’t worry. They both started—and stopped—to say something about the Colin situation. After a short silence, which they spent staring out the closest window, Piper said, “Doesn’t it seem like the mountain is getting farther away, rather than nearer?”

  Dash nodded. It really did seem that way. “The way the valley dips down makes it hard for our eyes to judge the distance.”

  Piper smiled.

  “What’s so funny?” Dash asked.

  “I was really just making conversation,” she said.

  “Oh. Right.” They watched the scenery go by again until the motion of the tank lulled them both to sleep.

  Dash’s eyes snapped open when a stuffed pink octopus landed on his chest with a thump. “Wake up, fearless leader,” Gabriel said from above him. “We’ve arrived at the base of the mountain. Lythe is out scouting for us.” He gave an annoyed look at Tumar, who sat rigid in his seat, holding his spear across his lap.

  Dash no longer felt the motion of the wheels beneath him and scrambled to his feet. Piper was already back in her chair. “Did you see the ogres?”

  Gabriel nodded. “The good news is the plan is moving forward. The ogres are scaling the mountain right now.”

  “And the bad news?” Dash asked.

  “They’re only a quarter of the way up. And they may have stopped for the night because it doesn’t look like they’re going any higher.”

  Dash groaned. “We’re way behind schedule, then. Anything we can do to make them climb faster?”

  As the one who knew the most about the ogres, Siena shook her head. “According to my research, we’re unable to communicate with them. They have a very primitive language of grunts and snorts. Chris wasn’t able to replicate it for our translator device.”

  Dash took a deep breath. “Okay. The ZRKs built us this tank to use as shelter. We’ll be safe here for the night. Hopefully by dawn they’ll have started climbing again. If not, confronting them sounds like our only option. We’ll make them understand us.”

  “I’ll try calling the ship again,” Gabriel said, already typing on his arm band. He opened a channel to all four of the remaining crew members. “Hi!” Carly said cheerfully. “How’s it going down there?”

  They all grabbed at Gabriel’s arm to answer, but before anyone could get a word out, they heard what sounded like heavy footfalls, and then Anna shouted, “Hang up, hang up! Right now!”

  The line went dead.

  “What just happened?” Gabriel asked. The ground crew stared at each other.

  “Do…do you think Anna and Colin are working together?” Siena asked, feeling bad for even thinking it, but clearly Anna’s behavior in the past proved she was willing to betray her friends. Maybe she would again.

  Dash sank back down onto his sleeping bag. Was he a fool for thinking that Anna could have changed? “I don’t want to believe that. I’m sure there’s some other explanation.”

  Silence fell as they tried to think of one. A loud rapping on the side of the tank startled all of them.

  Tumar rolled his eyes. “It is only Lythe,” he said.

  Dash unlatched the front door, then inched it open slowly.

  Lythe stood outside, her golden eyes glinting with the reflected light of Dargon’s three moons. She held up a basket in each hand. “Hungry?”

  —

  “Why’d you make me hang up?” Carly demanded. She was surrounded by her crewmates on all sides. They had pushed her into the narrow storage closet built into the hull beside the Element Fuser. It was cramped, especially with the robots (and her guitar). Carly tried to move her elbow so she could reach her wrist, but Anna’s shoulder was in the way. “I need to call Gabriel back,” Carly said, twisting so she could pull her arms in closer to her body. “What if the ground team’s in trouble and they need us?”

  Ravi grabbed for her arm. “Wait. Let us explain.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “Explain what? That you guys are being total weirdos?”

  “Carly, listen,” Anna pleaded. “Colin tricked Chris. I mean really tricked him. I don’t know what he did, but Chris is passed out on the floor of the Cloud Kitten. And Colin’s taken over the ship. Forget the ground crew. We’re in big trouble.”

  STEAM began to sputter angrily. SUMI jumped and hopped but couldn’t move very much in the tight space. TULIP just whimpered.

  Carly’s eyes were wide. “How do you know all this?”

  “So you didn’t see his conversation with Dash?” Anna asked.

  Carly shook her head.

  “Colin tracked the rest of us down from our MTB signals,” she said, “which is why we didn’t want
you to use yours. He seems to have forgotten about you.” Anna looked around the space. “Have you been working back here all afternoon?”

  Carly nodded. “Gabriel’s call was the first communication I’ve gotten today.”

  “The fuser must be blocking your signal,” Ravi said, “or at least severely lowering its strength. Otherwise Colin would have found you too. You should turn yours off, just in case.”

  Reluctantly, Carly switched her MTB off. She noticed the others didn’t have theirs at all. “What did Dash talk to Colin about?”

  “The elves needed proof that Dash and the others were really with Chris before agreeing to help them,” Niko said. “Colin pretended to be Chris!”

  “We need to warn them!” Carly said.

  “I think they already know,” Ravi replied. “Without his glasses, he may look like Chris, and he definitely fooled the elves. But Dash is smart. He’d have seen right through it.”

  “Maybe so,” Carly said, “but we still need to find out why they called.”

  “STEAM,” Anna called, twisting her head around to look for him. “Any ideas on how to contact the ground crew without Colin picking up the signal? I’m sure he’s monitoring the whole ship.”

  At first, STEAM seemed surprised that she’d spoken to him. It was a rare occurrence. But after a few seconds of calculations, he replied, “Yes.”

  She waited, then forced herself to hold back her annoyance and asked, “Are you gonna tell us how?”

  STEAM pointed at SUMI, who hopped and chirped and proudly said, “Me.”

  “That was the best strawberry I’ve ever eaten,” Piper declared, wiping the pink juice from her chin with her arm. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” Lythe said, beaming. “I am glad you enjoyed the food.”

  “Well, I didn’t like it at all,” Gabriel said through a mouthful of food as he speared his eighth berry with his fork.

  Lythe’s face fell. “Oh…I’m sorry. It was just all I could find this close to the mountain.”

  Gabriel lowered his fork. “No, I’m sorry. I was kidding.”