Diggers: The Sharp Edge of the Universe

by Shannon Heather

  The DUMP pushed out into space much slower than when Belch had driven them to the dig site and Finn noticed how carefully Reggie controlled the ship. Though he hadn't loved his first trip with Belch, he thought Reggie drove like such a grandpa.

  Finn opened his mouth to tell Reggie to speed up when Mikayla shouted, “There it is!”

  Finn looked out the window at the…nothing. The anomaly seemed more ominous than the black holes they’d seen, because it took up so much space and didn’t have the accretion disc of a black hole. Black holes were scary, and every once in a while a ship or planet would get sucked into one, but at least they had dimensions and size, and an entire space station didn’t bounce off of them.

  This anomaly seemed to go on forever.

  Reggie confirmed it. “Initial scans still can’t put a size on it. Confirms it’s silica-based.”

  Mikayla looked at Reggie and Finn. “Well, we’re here and breaking every interstellar law there is. So? Now what?”

  “You’re the Journeyman Scientist.” Finn felt bitterness oozing into every word. “We’re Diggers. What do you think we’re gonna do?”

  “Well, besides smelling bad and acting like Neanderthals, I have no idea what your plan is.” She tossed her golden hair over her shoulder and looked at the void in space.

  “We’re going to make the discovery while you stand around and try to look important. It’s what we Diggers always do!” Something savage inside him awoke from a long sleep.

  Maybe all the family history he’d endured over the past week finally sunk into his brain. Maybe being grounded to his room finally made the difference. But at last Reggie’s attitude started to make sense. All the stuff his family had discovered and invented had become integral parts of life. His dad had found a bacteria that gave off electricity, and Quinn had learned that the same bacteria gave off more electricity as it cooled.

  So what if Lee Fishborne got to name his dad’s discovery Arimikaylius. Another stupid name. Lee Fishborne wouldn’t have even known about it if Gus hadn’t scraped it off the DUMP's auger while cleaning and received a major shock.

  Finn hadn't known about his dad’s and brother’s discoveries until he'd read the holonews clipping stickied to the end of the family history, and he wondered if his dad had ever said anything about it. How much had he missed?

  Mikayla turned to Finn and Reggie with a fierce, biting hatred in her eyes. “You…stupid…Digger…boys.”

  She huffed off and sat in the last seat near the launch bay doors, mumbling to herself.

  “Ignore her,” Finn said as he surveyed the inky blackness. “Well, just pick any spot. It all looks the same. Let’s start digging.”

  Reggie nodded and inched up to the line where the stars disappeared. A massive grinding sound split the air as the Triamond-tipped auger mounted to the front of the DUMP began to spin.

  Sparks flew at the window and the auger began to pull in samples.

  “Confirmed,” Reggie said. “Silica-based.”

  “In the middle of space. That’s…impossible.” Mikayla shook her head so hard, Finn hoped it might roll off. “Reconfigure the sensors. This DUMP needs a….”

  “Everything is working right,” Finn said. “Just keep digging, Reg. Can it give you parameters yet? How big is it? How far will we have to dig to get to the other side?”

  “Digging sensors estimate three to ten days to push through,” Reggie said.

  “Three to ten days.” Mikayla threw her arms in the air. “We can dig through entire planets in just one day. Why can’t the sensors give us better information?”

  Finn stared at her and wondered how the daughter of the Science superstar could be so stupid, “Because it’s an A-N-O-M-A-L-Y.”

  Mikayla crossed her arms. “That’s it. I’m calling my dad.”

  She reached for the Combutton, but before she could even say his name the DUMP went silent. The only sound came from the muted whirr of the auger.

  “What did you do?” Mikayla marched over to Reggie and spun his chair around to face her.

  “Silent mode—for unfriendly planets,” Reggie said and turned back toward the Comscreens.

  Finn smiled. Silent digging, muffling the sound of the entire DUMP and not just the auger, had been invented by his great-grandmother, Martha O’Connor. Sure, it had been the unintended outcome of trying to find something to silence her frequent trips to the toilet, but she'd also thought to try it on space ships.

  “We’re just kids. We shouldn’t be doing this. We’re just….” Mikayla started to hyperventilate.

  “No one forced you to come.” Finn faced her and ignored the impulse to run away when she stared him down. “We can’t take you back. If you aren’t going to help, sit down!”

  Mikayla didn’t sit down. To Finn’s absolute shock, she started studying the screen again as if he’d never yelled at her. Girls were impossible to understand.

  Reggie watched the auger push slowly through the anomaly. “Made up of fused quartz, sodium carbonate, limestone, magnesium oxide, and aluminum oxide,” he reported.

  “So it is…its…glass.” Mikayla reviewed the sensor screen for confirmation.

  “That’s what I thought.” Finn fist-pumped the air.

  “Yep,” Reggie said.

  “Then it’s got to have a limit, a size. Dimensions.” Mikayla read the data flashing onto the sensor screen, finally looking back at them when the silence stretched out. “What?” She looked away from the gawking boys. “If I’m stuck here, I might as well help, just like you said. You need a Scientist.”

  Finn started to argue, but Reggie held up a hand. “No. We need her.”

  Chapter 12: Tight Situation

  The DUMP slowly pushed deeper and deeper into the anomaly. It felt like they traveled through the caves of Stampora, which had been one of Finn’s favorite family reunion sites. Every so often, light from the DUMP glinted off the inside of the hole they were creating, and it looked just like the inky water that had run along the entire inside of those caves. The water had even flowed along the roof of the caves, which gave proof that the theory of gravity was completely relative.

  Finn slapped the sensor button for the millionth time. “Dimensional readings on the anomaly are indeterminable at this time, Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA cooed.

  “How far have we gone?” Finn asked.

  “About a thousand feet,” Reggie said.

  “In twenty minutes?” Mikayla said. She’d spent most of the time pacing.

  “Yep,” Reggie said. “Going slow.”

  “The deeper we go into this thing, the darker it gets.” Mikayla looked out the window. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

  Finn wanted to argue with her, but he couldn’t. He grew more and more terrified with every passing minute. He’d wanted an adventure, and it had been so easy to leave the Space Station with everyone in a frenzy over the anomaly, but now he wondered if maybe he should have thought things out a little more. In comparison, this made copying his mother’s ID and sneaking into the Science Lab seem like stealing an extra dessert.

  “I think we should try backing out, Reg,” Finn said. “So we can make sure our path out stays clear.” It qualified as a real reason, but he hoped Mikayla and Reggie couldn’t see his gnawing fear.

  Maggie’s angry face flashed into his mind and Finn gave an involuntary shudder. Maybe if they just backed out and headed to the Space Station, everyone there would still be so busy they wouldn’t notice one DUMP had gone missing.

  Reggie pushed the auger into reverse and a piercing screech made them all slap their hands over their ears. The sound surged through the DUMP, wave after wave of painful noise.

  “What is that sound?” Mikayla bellowed, the noise similar to metal scratching metal.

  Reggie pressed the ALL STOP button and it went quiet again. “Can’t go backwards.”

  “What do you mean we can’t go backwards? The DUMP backs out of holes.” Finn wished he could stay calm,
but fear tore at his insides.

  “No dirt,” Reggie said.

  “No dirt?” Finn stared at the dead auger with all its grinding metal and noticed massive curls of glass shavings caught in the teeth of the auger. “Awww, space dust! The glass is getting caught in the teeth. Dirt and water, even the different clays, churn out as the auger turns, but the glass is getting caught.”

  “Yep,” Reggie said. “Might be melting too.”

  “So we’re what? We're stuck?” Mikayla began to pace in tight circles again. “Ohmygosh. Ohmygosh.”

  Reggie touched her arm, “'S okay.”

  Mikayla gazed at his massive hand and then into his eyes, and she didn’t pull away or look like she might throw up, the way she did the few times Finn got too close.

  Well, Finn thought, I made my first discovery. My best friend likes my arch enemy—and she likes him too.

  Mikayla calmed down and stopped pacing and twirling her hair. But Finn didn’t know if he agreed with Reggie's assessment of their situation. As a matter of fact, he felt pretty certain Reggie would be wrong. Nothing about this seemed okay.

  “Looks like our only option is to keep going forward.” Finn looked out the back dock bay window at the Space Station, so close it almost felt like he could reach out and touch it. He turned toward the motionless auger and the inky darkness beyond its tip, and tried without success to quiet his fear.

  “Yep,” Reggie said.

  Reggie pressed START and the auger began to spin, slowly pulling them farther into the blackness. Finn blew out a heavy breath and slumped into the navigator seat next to Reggie.

  This qualified as the worst idea he’d ever acted on—and he’d had a lot of bad ideas—but none of them ever seemed hopeless. Except this one. He envisioned the memorial service they’d conduct on the Space Station. He wondered if his mom would be able to think of a single good thing Finn had ever done. Mikayla’s dad would probably keep naming things after her, Reggie would probably be honored with some medal—given to his parents, of course—for Digger valor in the face of certain death, and Finn would get….

  “Ennis Finnigan Mallory O’Reilly!” Maggie’s voice boomed over the DUMP Com. “What exactly do you think you're doing?”

  “There’s a message for Mr. Finnigan O’Reilly,” ELAINA purred.

  Finn slid to the floor, then quickly jumped to his feet. The sound of his mom's voice using his full name caused him to shake from head to toe.

  “I…well, we…it…but— What?” Finn stammered. Mikayla stood next to him, trying to stifle giggles. She kept mouthing his first name over and over.

  “Well?” Maggie’s face had colored a deep crimson—almost dark violet.

  Finn felt his knees go weak. Maggie was the only person in the universe who could make him stand up straighter and not even have to be in the same room.

  “It’s not his fault, ma’am.” Mikayla stepped into view.

  “Mikayla.” Lee Fishborne’s voice sounded like he’d just sucked helium. “Princess?”

  Finn snorted, “Princess?” He widened the view finder and counted the only six faces on the entire Space Station capable of making him want to hide under his seat.

  “Well, it’s Finn’s fault we’re here, but he didn’t force us to come,” Mikayla said. “We came on our own.”

  Somehow Finn didn’t think her confession would help him get out of this situation.

  “You little…Digger brat.” Lee Fishborne’s thin face turned the same dark red as Maggie’s. “You disgusting little piece of trash! Get back here with my daughter. When I’m done with you, they won’t even let you be a janitor!”

  “What did you just say?” Maggie’s chest puffed out and she gave Lee Fishborne a hard wallop, sending him flying and squealing out of the picture. Finn felt hot waves of embarrassment beat his face as he helplessly watched his mom chase Lee Fishborne out of the screen. She didn’t even yelp or twitch when she received a few dozen zaps from the bully chip.

  “Don’t…you…ever call my son….” High-pitched male screams came from somewhere outside of the view finder, and Finn watched his dad and Quinn dive out of the screen after Maggie.

  “Maggie! Don’t hit him. They’ll send you to prison!” Gus wrestled with something Finn could only assume was his mom, off-screen.

  “If they’re going to send me to jail, at least let me finish him off first,” Maggie bellowed.

  His parents were mad at him, but they still loved him, and his mom’s savage response to Lee Fishborne caused tears to well up in Finn’s eyes. He’d been the worst son in history, and yet she still loved him.

  “Stop it! All of you,” Mikayla screamed. “We can’t get back to the Space Station.”

  The words were lost in the parent battle. The adults spent the next thirty minutes yelling at each other, making threats, and crying. Lee Fishborne kept going on about Finn killing his little princess, which made Finn snort a laugh. Mikayla could be a lot of things, but “Princess” definitely wasn’t one of them.

  Finally, Captain Windblown’s security personnel calmed everybody down. The adults sat in seats, silent except for the exchange of dirty looks and frequent heavy sighs.

  “Finnigan, is it?” Captain Windblown said. “Son, why in the universe did you steal the DUMP?”

  Finn stared at the floor. “I…b-borrowed…I don’t really know, sir. I just wanted to figure out what the anomaly is.”

  “And you thought you could figure it out better than our team of professionals because…?"

  Finn studied the heavy silver buckles running up the sides of his boots. “Umm….”

  “What in celestial dust came over you?” Captain Windblown rubbed his bald head.

  “Sir?” Mikayla stepped into view.

  “Oh, yes, dear?” Captain Windblown said.

  “We’ve learned a lot about the anomaly in the last twenty minutes. I think it would be a good idea, sir, while everyone is trying to pull us out of the anomaly, to send the information we’ve collected back to the Space Station. You see, sir, we’ve tried to back out, but the glass is melting behind us.” Mikayla's superb diversion tactic didn't go unnoticed by Finn.

  “What have you learned, Princess?” Lee Fishborne shot out of his chair and practically put a nose print on the screen.

  “First of all, Dad, if you call me Princess again, I’ll break the communication. You know how much I hate it.” Mikayla gave him a severe glare. “I’m not five years old anymore. I’m almost fourteen.”

  “Okay, sweetheart.” Lee Fishborne threw his hands up in surrender. “What have you learned…Mikayla?”

  “Well, I haven’t really learned anything. Reggie and Finn have done a lot of scans, and we know the anomaly is glass, but we have no idea how thick it is.”

  Lee Fishborne slapped a hand to his head. “Glass.”

  A murmur passed through the command deck, and Captain Windblown had a whispered conversation with Lee Fishborne and Finn’s parents.

  “Kids, we’re going to try to pull you out of the hole,” Captain Windblown said. “In the meantime, I want you to send us what you’ve learned through ELAINA so we can start processing the information immediately.”

  The wind rushed out of Finn's lungs. A punch in the gut would have been less painful. This meant he wouldn’t be making any discoveries. He’d be in jail watching Mikayla’s dad steal yet another discovery from the Diggers.

  “Yes…sir,” he said.

  Chapter 13: Lost Cause

  “Thank you sir,” Finn said as Reggie and Mikayla loaded the last of the food rations and fuel cells.

  They had one month’s worth of food, water, and fuel, and no adults onboard after a number of failed attempts. The rations had been loaded through a space-to-space transfer—a long tube the diameter of Mikayla’s waist. Finn’s dad, Quinn, and Lee Fishborne had all tried unsuccessfully to reach the DUMP, and they'd failed at the same point every time. The moment they started into the hole in the glass, the atmospheric change sen
t them spinning out of control into space, and the Space Station had to send out a rescue team to pick them up.

  Lee Fishborne actually yelled obscenities into the Com in his space helmet, which was all caught on the live feed for everyone in the Space Station to hear. Finn still laughed at the vision of Lee Fishborne flipping over and over in space and cussing with every turn. Mikayla turned a deep crimson when his profanity reverberated over ELAINA’s Com link, and she mumbled something about it being the first time she’d ever heard her father say those words.

  Reggie spent most of the time watching the auger, or watching Mikayla. They’d all hoped, even if no one had admitted it out loud, that at least one of the space-to-space exchanges would be successful so they’d have an adult on board. The thought of turning this stupid idea over to an adult to fix sounded wonderful. Finn would’ve even welcomed Belch, but the big man hadn't even made it close before the entire tube ripped away from the Space Station and sent Belch careening off into space. Lieutenant Orlando tried to squeeze through the transfer tube, but even his boneless squid-like body couldn’t compress enough, so he ended up stuck in the middle of the tube, screeching like an Earth orangutan.

  When no one else would volunteer, the SS Vortex loaded the DUMP with as much food, water, and fuel as they could hold, then spent hours downloading sensor and testing information using ELAINA.

  Finn knew the three of them coming back alive wasn’t nearly as important as the information they gathered along the way. He had talked to his mom and dad and sometimes Quinn called to give him advice. The conversations usually ended with someone getting mad or his mom crying.

  “Never you mind, Finnigan.” Captain Windblown’s eyebrows were stuck together with worry, and his forehead wrinkled under the strain of the past few days. “Make sure you send all of the information collected down to Mr. Fishborne. He’ll need it to make the necessary analysis for the discoveries.”

  Finn kicked at his boot buckle. ELAINA received the daily Space Station NewsPad, and so far there hadn’t been a single report about any of them onboard the DUMP. The news people made it look like Lee Fishborne spearheaded this entire great new discovery from Vortex.