by Ramona Finn
I sneezed, but kept following Ben as he carefully checked over each drum. He was meticulous, and after a while, my attention strayed. I moved over to the other wall to examine the crates that were labeled Snack Foods.
“You know, Tylia, I don’t understand it, either,” Ben said, not looking up from his careful search. “The Geos, the Rejs, the Elites and us Farrows—we’re all the same. We’re humans, and we occupy the same world. We all want the same thing, the Cure to this Virus. I don’t understand why the Rejs think we’re the enemy. If we find the Cure, everyone wins.” He sighed, long and loud. “I wish we could somehow reach out to them, make them see that we’re all on the same side.”
He paused his search and turned to face me. “Can you imagine, Ty, that one day when the Virus is defeated, the people in the Geos will emerge from the underground and be able to live in the sunshine, and grow food out in the open? They’ll share the planet with the Rejs and the Elites. It’s a bright future. We just need time to get there.”
“Would you really be open to talking to the Rejs…if the opportunity actually came up?” A small glimmer of hope sparked inside me. Maybe this was something I could bring about.
Ben’s eyes searched the ceiling, and he bit his lower lip. Then he huffed. “I don’t think those Rejs are capable of negotiating in a civilized manner. They’re not much more than animals—living on pure instinct.”
A flame burst inside my chest. How dare he speak of my friends that way. I had many choice words for him, but they caught in my throat. I wanted to tell him how the Rejs were organized, cared for their old and weak, had families, and worked hard to survive in an inhospitable world. But then he’d wonder how I knew all this. I also wanted to remind him that bringing the Geos and Rejs together was a bigger job than simply finding a cure for the Virus, that he was the one being naive. There was a lot of suspicion between the two peoples, and it was partly because of the hatred spewed by the Farrows.
Still, the idea that my friends and family could come up to the surface one day, and without worrying about dying from the Virus—it was a sweet, sweet dream that tampered down the fire inside. I could feel how much I wanted that dream to come true. Ben clearly wouldn’t be the one to bring it about, not with that attitude. If I could play my part to unite the Geos and the Rejs, wouldn’t that be something? But did I have what it would take?
“See, I knew it!” Ben’s anger filled the room. I moved over to where he stood right next to a drum that was labeled Spare Fuel.
Ben had his hand over something on the wall end of the drum. When he pulled it away, I could see his fingers were coated with something sticky and dark. Fuel.
“There’s a leak here,” he said, wrapping his arms around the drum. He tilted the drum to his body and turned it around so we could both see what was going on. “See this? Someone drilled a hole in the fuel drum. If this had caught fire in the explosion, not a single shred of this ship would’ve been left.”
I stared at the tiny hole slowly leaking fuel. It was not a smooth hole, but one that looked like someone had hacked at it with a crude instrument.
“This is Rej work, I know it,” Ben said. “They don’t possess drills. This is primitive, but effective. Wait until I tell R.L. He’s going to go ballistic. Those Rejs will pay for this.”
I swallowed. Could this be right? Why would the Rejs have done this? Hadn’t they known I was on the transport? It had been broadcast all over the TV… but the Rejs didn’t have access to the news, did they? I was torn. I wanted to trust Skylar Two and his family, but had I fallen for their stories too quickly? They had laughed at me for being gullible when we’d first met. Had I been played?
An EF appeared at the storage room door. This time, he wasn’t wearing his helmet, and I saw that he was young, with dark hair cut very close to his head and light-colored eyes. He couldn’t have been much older than me. I don’t know why that surprised me.
“Killian, look here.” Ben waved him over and showed him what he’d discovered. Together, they went over the drum. The EF checked the other drums too, but only one had been hacked. Ben shared his dangerous theory as Killian nodded grimly.
“Sir, your theory fits exactly with what we’ve found.”
“What have you found?” Ben turned to him.
“For one thing, it appears as if the fuel line to the engine was cut, sir.”
“Cut?” Ben’s face turned white.
“Yes, sir. At least two points in the cables were sawed at—crudely, as if the instrument was blunt, much like this drum. Neither of the cuts made it all the way through, just enough to create a slow leak. And we also think we’ve found the origin point of the explosion, the spark, as it were, that set the whole thing off. Someone left a bunch of fuel-soaked rags smoldering in the engine room. It was a matter of time before the smolder would burst into flames and the leaks would just spread the fire until the engines exploded.”
“Could it have been an accident?” I interrupted, hopeful that this might exonerate my friends.
Killian shook his head. “Leaving stuff around like that isn’t something any of our engineers would ever do. They’re trained to be much more careful.”
Ben swore under his breath, his face growing darker by the second. “How did those animals get on board?”
The room swayed, and for a moment I thought we were under attack again.
“Are you okay?” Ben’s mood changed immediately as he wrapped an arm around me. He pulled me close to him, supporting me with his body.
“I…I’m just dizzy,” I said. This couldn’t be true. The Rejs wouldn’t have done that. They couldn’t have.
“You should sit down,” Ben said, helping me out of the storage room and lowering me into a passenger seat. He turned to Killian and instructed him to continue to gather evidence. The EF marched off without another word.
Ben knelt down in front of me, clutching my hands in his. “This is all too much for you. You’re in shock. I’m sorry that you got caught up in this mess. But, like I said, the Rejs are dangerous. They’re the real enemy of our work. We’re going to have to do something to stop them. If they keep up these attacks, we’re going to fall behind, delaying the finding of the Cure. I’m going to recommend to R.L. that we step up our plans to eliminate them. Don’t worry, Ty. I’ll never let something like this happen to you again.”
Chapter Three
A crackle came over the intercom. “Sir, we’ve managed to repair enough of this transport to get the computers back up again. We are in communication with the Greens.”
“That is good news,” Ben said, helping me to my feet. “They’ll be able to guide us through the repairs.”
With that, we walked slowly to the front of the transport.
Back in the bridge area, Ben headed straight for the comms systems. The screens that had been dark and silent just minutes ago came to life. Data scrolled on every screen.
“Even better!” exclaimed Ben. “It looks like the weather front is shifting. It’ll be safe to take off sooner than expected. We won’t have to wait for the rescue transports to arrive.”
“Isn’t it safer for us to wait for a new transport?” I asked meekly. I didn’t relish the idea of flying in this severely damaged one.
“I don’t want to lose any of the evidence,” Ben explained. “And this old girl still has a lot of juice left in her.”
I didn’t understand his reference, but neither did I have the energy to argue. Ben was the pilot. He would know best.
He turned to the front panel where I presumed the pilot’s seat was. He lifted a set of headphones to one ear and began speaking to someone on the other side, getting advice on the fastest way to get the ship back up in the air. I wandered around checking out the computer systems. They were old, but by Geos standards, they were still miles ahead of the tech I was familiar with. I slipped into a seat and began fiddling around with the controls. Because of the crash, the system’s security had been damaged, so getting past their firewal
ls was easy. I pulled up the files on this transport. The reports of the crash were being uploaded and refreshed every 30 seconds, so I could get almost real-time information on what had happened—or theories of what might have happened, at least. I opened the first file. It was marked TOP SECRET. I figured that, since I’d been on the transport when the incident had happened, I should be privy to all those secrets involved.
I clicked on the file to get to the first page. A hand landed on my shoulder.
“I think you should go to the passenger area and rest,” Ben said quietly. His lips were so close to my ear that the warmth of his breath gave me goosebumps. “You shouldn’t exert yourself.”
I pushed away from the console to look up into his concerned face. For a second, I marveled at how someone like me, a nobody from the Geos, could’ve caught his attention.
Oh, right. I’d hacked my way into the Acceptance.
“But I can help you,” I insisted. “I’m a coder, remember? I can even check through the ship’s computers to see if they’ve been tampered with.”
Ben smiled, but his eyes sent a strange shiver through me. “We have people who can handle that. You needn’t worry your pretty little head with these matters. You need to rest. R.L. will be meeting us at the Greens when we land, and you’ll want to be at your best.”
I don’t know how long I sat there staring at him before words formed in my brain. What had he just said to me? My pretty little head? Every swear word I’d ever heard flooded my mind, but I fought hard not to let all that show on my face. I was sure I’d failed, though, because Ben took my hands in his and pulled me up gently from my chair.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That came out wrong. I’m still a little shaken by the crash. I only want what’s best for you. I feel it’s my responsibility to keep you safe, and if you go back there and rest, I’ll be able to focus on getting us flying in no time. Worrying about you takes up a lot of my focus. Please, for me?”
He looked so sincere that, even if I wanted to remain mad at those words, I couldn’t. I wanted to get off this transport as much as he did. So, I complied.
As I headed back to the passenger area, Ben’s words echoed in my mind. No one in the Geos had ever treated me as if I needed to be taken care of. Even my parents hadn’t spoken to me that way, at least not that I could remember. Skylar Two certainly hadn’t. This was new—this concept of someone wanting to take care of me. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. On one hand, it felt like a warm blanket placed over my shoulders, but at the same time, like a heavy blanket that was holding me down to the ground. Even when I wanted to fly.
I paused for a second and contemplated heading back to the bridge to insist on being allowed to help. I hadn’t come this far, and survived the Acceptance, to be treated like a weak human. But, at the same time, maybe it was best to stay quiet. I still didn’t know how much Ben or the others knew about my hacking into the Acceptance. I didn’t know if they were letting me get to the Labs only to expose me publicly to everyone as the cheater I was.
My stomach twisted, making me feel sick again. Was I walking into a trap? Why would Ben show so much concern for me if I was? Was it all an act?
“You’ve been sent back here, too, huh?” Kev asked, bringing me back to the present.
I collapsed into an empty seat near the door to the bridge. He was sitting a few seats down twiddling his thumbs.
“They won’t let me do anything to help,” he grumbled.
I scrunched my nose like there was a bad smell in the air. “Me, neither.”
“I guess this is what it’s like being a winner,” Kev said. “It’s going to take some getting used to—letting people do stuff for us.”
“I guess so,” I said, leaning my head back against the seat and closing my eyes.
“Ty?” Kev asked. I looked over at him. “I’ve decided that I’m going to do everything I can to fit in at the Labs. All my life, I’ve been laughed at—you know, for being a farmer for one thing, and then falling into that damn vat. But that ends now. I’m going to work so hard the Farrows will beg me to be one of them. They’ll wonder how they could’ve done without me.”
I couldn’t help but smile at Kev. He was a good guy, one of my very few friends, and he’d always been good to me. I really wanted his wish to come true. I wanted him to succeed. Yet, at the same time, something heavy sat in my chest…something that brought me a great deal of anxiety, though I couldn’t put a name to its origin.
“You’ll be the best Farrow that ever was,” I said. “I bet you’ll be the one to find the Cure.”
The transport began to rumble, and the engines roared once again. A cheer rose from the other side of the bridge door.
“We’re going to separate the bridge from the rest of the ship and tow the damaged sections behind us,” Ben said over the intercom. “All passengers need to move up here.”
I jumped up, as did Kev, and we headed into the front of the ship. There wasn’t much space on the bridge, so we edged in carefully. Killian sealed it behind us. He guided me to sit at the computer panel I’d been at earlier. Only now, the computer screen was blank. Kev was told to stand with his back to the door, shoulder to shoulder with Killian and the second EF. Ben was seated at the front, next to a second pilot. He was leaning over a control panel talking to someone on comms.
“Yes, sir,” he said. “Thank you, Father. I won’t let you down.” He peeled off his headset and placed it on the panel, mumbling something that sounded like, “Again.”
“Everything all right?” I asked, turning my seat toward him.
I watched as his shoulders rose and fell. Then he turned to me, flashing a huge, relieved grin. “It’ll be a bit bumpy,” he said. “But you’ll get the best view of the Labs from here.”
Outside the bridge, we heard loud clunking thuds. Ben explained how the damaged section was separating from our section, and then how robotic arms were attaching special links to each section, so we could tow the damaged parts back with us. Finally, Ben instructed his co-pilot to take off. The ship shook and I held on to the armrests of my seat as tightly as I could. I held my breath as the engines pushed the ship back into the air, straight up off the emergency platform. It rose like a waking giant into the sky. Grey clouds had filled the blue, and the wind pushed against us. Ben skillfully guided us through the dense clouds as I held my breath. Suddenly, as if a curtain had been pulled back, we emerged out of the greyness into clear blue sky once again.
And Ben had been right. Ahead of us, almost all of the entire cluster around the Greens Sky Lab lay before us, gleaming gold, blue, and green in the setting sunlight. There must have been at least seven Labs in this cluster, joined by those glass-like bridges. They floated in the shape of a pyramid, with the Greens right at the top. When we’d seen the main Sky Lab earlier, we had only seen the top of the pyramid. Now we saw the entire cluster structure. It was clear that it had been built to show who was boss. The Farrows certainly made it clear that they were the ones in charge.
To me, the cluster of Labs looked like enormous bubbles floating in clear water, supporting the biggest one right at the top. My heart raced as we flew slowly past each Lab. In this cluster, each of the smaller and lower Labs were exactly the same shape—spheres that were miniature versions of the Greens. Kev oohed and aahed audibly, making even the EFs smile and Ben chortle. I just held my breath as I took it all in, eyes wide and mouth open. I must have looked like a child seeing the Above for the very first time.
“There she is,” Ben announced, pointing up at the biggest one. “Your new home, the Greens.”
As we approached, I craned my neck to see out the front window from my seat behind the pilots. The Greens was a giant ball of glass-like material that had to be the size of one of those mountains Skylar Two had shown me. It could easily fit thousands of people inside very comfortably. Inside, it appeared to have a wall right down the middle that separated the Lab into two vertical sections. One section had transparent walls tha
t showed off its many levels, connected by open elevators and stairwells. Elites in light blue lab coats mingled and moved about busily. The other section had translucent walls, and I could barely make out any movement within. With each passing second, the Greens grew larger and larger, as it filled our transport’s viewer.
Ben piloted the transport up over the dome at the top of the Greens. I couldn’t help but gasp at the sheer size of the section that had been set aside for growing plants. We’d been taught that the Greens’ dome had started as an experiment—to see if plants would grow off the surface of Earth. Clearly, they did, and they flourished. The area dedicated to plant life in this dome had to be bigger than the entire surface area of the Geos. It made me wonder, for a second, why the Elites still needed the Geos’ supplies if they could grow this much here. Was all this not enough to feed their people?
I moved over to stand behind Ben and peered down as the transport reached the pinnacle of the dome. On one side of the viewer, I saw an entire forest of trees. They came in many shapes and sizes. Some had lush green foliage with pointy tops, while others had branches that spread out with green, red, and orange leaves. On the other side of our viewer were neat rows of plants that I couldn’t identify.
“Crops,” Ben said, looking up at me and noticing my interest. “There’s corn, wheat, and all kinds of vegetables. We grow them to supplement our food.”
Crops. In abundance and variety. In the Geos, the only thing that could be classified a crop would be mushrooms. I’d only had a mushroom once in my life, since most of them were Sky Tubed up to these Labs. Our hydroponics labs performed experiments on plants as food, and only perfected the prototypes. This is where they sent their samples to be grown en masse, to feed the Elites. We mere workers in the Geos occasionally got a sample of some of the prototypes. Sometimes we got to buy the failed experiments too, but they weren’t worth the food vouchers that we exchanged for them.