“No,” Gedney says.
“I could probably convince one of the aeronauts—”
“No.”
“There is still time to save this!”
“No, no, no!” Gedney shouts at Waters. He rises up to nearly twice his size. Waters steps back.
I kind of like the new Gedney. That is, until I remember he masterminded the virus that will probably leave me dead by day’s end.
“I don’t understand,” Waters says, shaking his head. “How could everything have gone so wrong?”
“I’ll tell you how,” Gedney says. “You’re one man, Jon. You can’t expect to take down Earth Force and broker a peace deal by yourself. Being right is not enough.”
“But if I was able to get to the summit . . . explain what happened to the Youli . . . if only—”
“Enough! There’s no way you could convince the Youli that you didn’t betray them. Not to mention, I would never let you risk the kids’ lives.”
Waters tips his head and narrows his eyes. “What exactly is the offensive?”
“Diruo pulse, perimeter attack, followed by a secret mission aboard the Youli vessel,” Gedney says.
“What secret mission?” Waters asks.
Gedney steps in front of us, almost like he’s shielding us from Waters. “The admiral was quite intrigued by your report on the prime cell patch technology development. While you’ve been running around on secret errands all tour, she had me upload a degradation virus to one of the patches. These kids—your pod—are bounding directly to the Youli vessel to plant the patch on their biotech systems.”
“No.” Waters’s face droops, then his whole body deflates until he’s on his knees on the chamber floor.
“I’m afraid your minute is up, Jon,” Gedney says. “I need to escort these kids to the space elevator.”
Earth Force officers and cadets fill the space elevator. The atmosphere buzzes with adrenaline and reeks with the sharp smell of sweat. Even though the elevator is packed, it’s nearly silent. I’m guessing most Bounders are too nervous to talk. Maybe the aeronaut captains are nervous, too. The truth is, I have no idea whether they’ve been in combat before. I never thought to ask, which now seems incredibly stupid. But with the Earth Force code of silence, they probably wouldn’t have told me much anyway.
Out the window, Gulagaven shrinks as we zoom away. I can barely pick out the entrance to the occludium mines or the aeroport or the giant leaf structures where they harvest forage for food. Soon we pass out of the atmosphere, and the planet is just a giant rock beneath us as we climb toward the space dock.
Will we make it back? Will I ever see my family again? Will Addy be forced to train at the EarthBound Academy with the memory of a dead brother fresh in her mind?
Above us, the space dock grows bigger as we close in. I can’t believe only five weeks have passed since Addy tried to convince Cole and me to hack the apartment lift. What will she think when I tell her about the space elevator? If I’m allowed to tell her. If I’m alive to tell her.
I’ve got to get rid of these thoughts. They’re too distracting for me to focus on my mission. I wish I could talk to my pod mates, but I don’t dare break the silence.
Wait. All this talk about the virus patch, and I almost forgot about my brain patch. I reach out with my mind and brush against Mira. Hey, you okay?
She doesn’t respond with words. I get snippets of feelings and memories. Sadness, fear, helplessness. An image of the Youli prisoner in the space station cell block. A replay of yesterday, when the angry Youli flung Waters against the wall, convinced of his betrayal. A picture of Waters today, when he realized his plans lay in shambles.
Are you afraid? I ask.
Sad. This is not my choice.
What do I say to that? It’s not my choice either. But there’s one thing I know about being a Bounder: you don’t have a choice.
Three tones sound and a voice comes over the intercom, first in Gulagan, then in English: “We will be arriving at the Gulagan Space Dock in two minutes. Please prepare to disembark.”
Our choice or not, here we go.
26
WE LOAD INTO HAN’S SHIP, donning our gloves and blast packs, and strap in. Lucy has the virus patch tucked into her uniform. The BPS is strapped to the center platform.
I review the mission in my mind. Our quantum ship, piloted by Han, bounds to the summit coordinates. Han sets off the diruo pulse. Our pod uploads the Youli vessel coordinates from the BPS and free-bounds. Han bounds back to the Gulagan Space Dock, triggering the decoy maneuvers. The quantum fleet bounds to the perimeter of the summit and engages in war tactics devised to distract the Youli and their allies. The Earth Force ships stay out of range of precision weaponry and focus their attacks on the security buffers while engaging in a random bounding sequence—using both quantum ship bounding and cadet free-bounding between ships—to throw off the Youli’s manual backup trackers. Once our pod locates the Youli systems center, plants the virus patch, and bounds back to the dock, Admiral Eames issues the retreat order.
To our enemies, our operation should look like a ditched effort by Earth Force. What they won’t know is that the patch placed by our pod ensures long-term degradation of the Youli systems.
If all goes as planned, we’ll be safely back at the dock and down the elevator in time for a disgusting Gulagan dinner and the Tundra Trials victory celebration.
Han conducts a final systems check. He was our pilot the first time we rode in a quantum ship. I can still remember how he told us to picture a ride at a summer fair, how he said the bound was just like that but over in a millisecond. There is nothing about this flight that will feel like a fair ride.
A million things could go wrong. Has the BPS ever been tested with a ship? It could malfunction, and we’d fail to manifest, just like what happened to the aeronauts in the Incident at Bounding Base 51. Or if the BPS works fine, the coordinates could be off. We could bound into the middle of a planet or a star or a black hole. We could manifest right next to a security ship and be fired on before we have a chance to set off the pulse. Even if we make it safely to the summit, the vessel coordinates could zoom us right into the middle of a Youli mess hall, or bunk room, or bathroom!
Even if we make it undetected to the Youli vessel, we’ve got to navigate through the ship to the systems room using a pirated map that may or may not be correct, plant the virus patch (something that’s never been done and may set off like a zillion alarms), and then, if we haven’t already been killed or taken prisoner, bound back to the Gulagan Space Dock.
That’s a lot of room for error.
“I’m scared,” Lucy says.
“Me, too,” I say.
“It’s all about the pod,” Marco says. “We’ve got this, Bounders.”
I hope so, Marco. I hope so.
The spider crawlers remove the scaffolding. Han pulls up the visual of the quantum field. “Commencing the bound in five, four, three, two, one.”
Puffed!—Stuffed!—Slammed!—Bammed!
“Go! Go! Go!” Han shouts as I open my eyes.
We struggle with our harnesses. Every second matters.
“Did we make it?” Lucy asks.
“Do they see us?” Cole shouts.
Han doesn’t waste time answering. He keys in the sequence for the diruo pulse as soon as the exterior visual comes into focus on the monitors.
In front of us, an enormous cylinder, ten times the size of the Gulagan dock, pivots in space. Six spheres rotate and slide on an intersecting axis. Circling the spheres are at least a dozen gigantic spaceships, most of them bigger than a bounding base. Some of the ships look like huge passenger crafts. Others look like jets or saucers. One is even shaped like a cube.
Our tiny quantum ship is so small compared to those monster crafts—like a fly on a hover windshield—that it’s hard to imagine they’d even notice us. But until we detonate the diruo pulse, our ship will show up on every single security system. Guaranteed.
Han is right. We need to move.
“Brace for the pulse,” Han says as he enters the command. Weird vibrations run through me and the body of the ship, then ripple out across space like circles spreading from a stone dropped in a pond. On the monitor, lights flicker at the perimeter of the summit zone and domino inward. In the seconds before the backup power ignites, everything is black, like the summit and all the ships were suddenly swallowed by space itself.
“It worked,” Han says. “Stage two. Move!”
Mira, me, Cole, Lucy, Marco. That’s the order.
Mira presses her hands to the scan pad, opens her port, and bounds.
I’m next. If Mira wasn’t waiting on the Youli vessel, I might chicken out.
Cole crowds me from behind.
I lay my hands on the scan pad, sense the coordinates, and bound.
Bam!
My feet shift beneath me, and I fall onto my hands and knees, sinking into a world of glowing orange mush. I’m overwhelmed with the smell of overripe cantaloupe. Did these coordinates land us in the Youli compost?
Hands grab my shirt and yank me to the side of the strange passageway I’ve arrived in. I raise my palms to defend myself, but then see it’s Mira. She ducks inside a compartment built into the wall. I follow her in and sink into a pit of slime up to my waist. A grate allows us to see the hallway from our hiding spot. So far the orientation is exactly as described on the Alkalinian map.
She points through the grate. Watch for the others.
“No brain-talking!” I whisper. “They might hear us!”
Cole emerges a second later.
“Get in here!” I whisper-shout.
He looks around, trying to locate my voice. Lucy appears. I slide open the grate and wave them both into the compartment.
“Yuck!” Lucy says, wiping slime from her hands. “What is this stuff?”
Mira puts a finger to her mouth, reminding Lucy to be quiet.
Marco bounds in. He dives into the compartment seconds before two Youli pass in front of us.
“That was close,” Marco says.
“Too close,” I say.
“What’s up with all the mush?” Marco says.
“I think this is the section of the ship that gets compressed when they bound,” I say.
“Shhh!” Lucy says. “Where’s the map?”
“I uploaded it to the astrocache compass.” Cole activates the compass on his wrist, pulls up the map, and twists the image for a different angle.
As I peer over his shoulder, a high-pitched alarm pierces my brain. I press my hands against my skull. Beside me, Mira does the same.
The alarm must mean Earth Force has commenced the attack. “The battle’s on!”
“How do you know?” Marco asks. “What’s wrong with you?”
I adjust to the constant ringing in my head and lower my hands. “There’s an alarm. I can hear it in my brain.”
“The patch?” Lucy asks. When I nod, she adds, “Creepy, but probably convenient for our mission.”
“What’s taking you so long, Fun Facts?” Marco asks Cole. “Like Jasper said, the battle’s on! We need to move!”
“Quiet!” I say. “Let him concentrate.”
Seconds pass before Cole speaks. “If this map and the coordinates are correct, we’re close. There are two hallways and a connecting bridge. From there, we should reach the systems room.”
“What are we waiting for?” Marco asks, his hand already pressing against the grate.
Mira throws her arm in front of him. A second later, Youli voices fill my brain.
“Someone’s coming,” I whisper.
We stay absolutely still as a group of Youli rush by our hiding spot, brain-talking about an attack.
Our attack.
Mira catches my eye. I shake my head—my reminder not to brain-talk. The Youli might hear us, and that would be a fast track to busted.
When the Youli turn the corner at the end of the hall, I nod at my pod mates.
Marco pushes back the grate, and we climb out of the wall compartment. As soon as I take a step, I slip, landing on my butt in the middle of the mushy orange passage. My feet are still covered in the slime from our hiding place.
“Let’s go!” Marco says. He gives me a hand and hauls me up.
It’s hard to walk in the mush, but I can’t let my klutziness put the mission at risk. I place my feet carefully and follow Cole down the passage.
The hallway glows like we’re outside in the sun, but there’s no light source in sight. The walls, floor, and ceiling are all made of the spongy orange stuff.
“This building material is fascinating,” Cole says. “I believe it’s organic living matter.”
“All I know is it stinks!” Lucy says. “Seriously, why does it smell like rotten fruit?”
“Bounders!” Marco says. “Let’s go!” He shoves Cole ahead.
Cole jogs down the hall, with us close behind. When he stops short, we nearly crash into him. “We’re approaching the turn. We need to confirm it’s clear.”
“I’ll do it.” Marco creeps to the corner and peers around. Meanwhile, Lucy guards our back. Without taking his eyes off the next hallway, Marco waves us forward.
We swing around the corner into a passage that looks almost exactly like the one we came down except there are lots of intersecting hallways. We have to check each branch before scuttling across. I’m aware of the distant sound of Youli brain-talking, but it doesn’t seem to be coming closer. I glance at Mira; she shakes her head. The sound fades.
With the next turn, the bridge Cole described is up ahead. It doesn’t look much different than the hallways we’ve already traveled, except one side is lined with windows looking out into space.
Although the Youli alarm has faded to a constant hum in the back of my brain, the reason for the alarm slams into focus as we step onto the bridge.
We’re drawn like magnets to the window and the scene outside.
From where the Youli vessel is docked on the axis, we look inward toward the pivoting cylinder. We can see past the cylinder all the way to the outer edge, past the rotating spheres and the other docked vessels, past the guard stations providing security for the summit.
Beyond the buffers, barely visible from where we stand, an outer ring of small vessels flash in and out of view. The Earth Force quantum fleet. Lights spark through space as crimson and aqua lasers target the bounding ships. The ships vanish a millisecond before impact then—Pop!—reappear on the other side of the space station, like popcorn jumping through the dark expanse of space.
“Are we winning?” Lucy asks.
“It’s a decoy, remember?” Cole says. “We’re not fighting to win.”
“A decoy for us, Super Friends,” Marco says. “Let’s go!”
Blast! An explosion rips through space like a starburst.
“No!” The word escapes my mouth much louder than it should. I cover my mouth and hope the Youli didn’t hear.
Mira slams her hands against the windows. Currents of rage and misery radiate from her mind. The Youli vessel shakes, knocking me off balance. As I steady myself against the spongy orange wall, debris ricochets off the windows.
“Tell me that wasn’t one of our ships!” Lucy says. “Tell me there weren’t Bounders on board!”
“Don’t let that be for nothing,” I say quietly. “We need to go.”
We pull away from the window and follow Marco the rest of the way across the bridge. I’m careful not to let my eyes wander back to the scene outside. I can’t afford to be distracted right now. Too much is at stake.
When we reach the systems room, Cole peers through the entrance then jumps back. “There’s someone in there.”
“Let me see.” Marco peeks his head around the door.
Lucy looks at me then back at the window where Mira has drifted. Next to Lucy, Cole hops on his toes. I point to the door. We need to stay focused, keep our heads in the game. She nods. Cole blows out a
long exhale. Mira steps away from the glass.
Marco ducks back and huddles up. “Here’s the deal. There’s a Youli in the corner working at a souped-up monitor. His back is to the door. I’ll take him out.”
“You’ll what?” Lucy says.
“You heard me. I’ll take him out.” When Lucy opens her mouth to protest, Marco keeps talking. “Look, it’s not like I’m going to kill him. I’m just going to knock him unconscious. Jasper said they freak out from physical contact. Right, J?”
When I tackled the Youli on the Paleo Planet, he went into sensory overload. “Yeah. It could work. But we need a better plan.”
They all stare, waiting for me to cough one up.
“Let me get a look at the room.” I creep to the doorframe and slowly lean forward. It’s just as Marco described and consistent with the intelligence we got from the Alkalinians. The room is circular and made from the same spongy orange stuff, but there are bright-colored ribbons running through the walls and floor, all leading back to a center core that looks like an enormous green tree trunk. All those colors feed into the trunk like a root system that not only powers the Youli computer systems and their ships, but also, at least according to the Alkalinians, provides some kind of sustenance for the Youli themselves.
A dozen screens are built into the wall on the far side of the systems room. Some of them show the exterior of the vessel and the battle beyond. A Youli is standing in front of one of the screens, probably watching the battle. Hopefully that will be enough of a distraction.
I pull back and gather my pod mates. “How’s this? Marco and I subdue the alien. Cole and Lucy, you head to the center pillar and get the patch planted.” I turn my eyes to Mira. “The Youli’s mind will go haywire once we tackle him. I won’t be able to focus on anything else. You need to flag us if you get word on the brain waves that his buddies are coming. But remember, no brain-talk!”
Marco doesn’t wait for anyone to weigh in. He rushes into the room, assuming I’ll have his back when he takes out the Youli.
In Evolution of Combat, there’s this thing that happens when your army is about to be defeated in battle. Everything moves in slow motion. It’s this special feature that gives you extra time to set up your last-ditch defense, but it also brings everything into hyperfocus. You might be fighting in a field of poppies and not even notice, but when the slow motion kicks in, you suddenly see each bright red petal of a particularly tall flower.
The Tundra Trials Page 22