Earthlight Space Academy Boxset

by Heather Lee Dyer

  I spin around, startling Rand.

  “Sorry.” I grin at him as I push past.

  I practically jog over to where the soldiers are still standing around. The General looks like he’s got his blood pressure under control. I inwardly giggle, because I doubt it’ll stay under control with me around.

  “I have an idea. Sir, you,” I point to the Brigadier General, “led the team of New American Republic spec ops to rescue us, right?”

  He hesitates before he answers, his expression wary. “Yes. My team is an elite group of Marines plus a Navy doc specially trained in desert warfare. The President gave us the orders to come here to help the situation.”

  “So, if I were able to get your team to the other side of the Wall, you could help the Tangs?” I look around the room. “With proper authorization, of course.”

  The brigadier general speaks up again. “Young lady, I’m a brigadier general. You cannot be expecting to direct my team.”

  “Sir, I don’t mean to direct your team. But I can show you the way under the Wall. That’s what started this whole mess, with the Chinese wanting to find my tunnel. Well, now we can use it to find the Tangs.”

  He doesn’t say anything, just drills me with an angry look. Several other soldiers scramble away from the table, busying themselves with other computer stations.

  I turn away from his wrath and study the vid screens to see if I can spot my tunnel from these views. As fascinated as I am by this technology, I’m nervous too. If I can see the tunnels from these aerial maps, then the Chinese could too. My whole plan could be blown to pieces if the Chinese have already found the tunnels.

  The General steps up beside me. “We’ve never found any tunnels that close to the Wall on any of our maps. We’ve even sent drones along the Wall to take up-to-date pictures. If you think they haven’t been compromised yet, then I think we should discuss your idea.”

  I smile at him. “Thank you, General. I’m really sorry I’ve caused this mess, but I think this will work. We have to help the Tangs.”

  He looks up, and behind me. I turn around, and a nurse is hurrying toward us. My heart leaps into my throat.

  “Oh no. Is Kai all right?” I meet her halfway across the room.

  She leans over, her hands on her knees. “Yes, he’s just woken up. He wants to see you.” She’s smiling as she catches her breath.

  “Thank you. Oh, my goodness, I’m so relieved.” I turn to the general. “Is it all right if I go see him now?”

  “Yes, we have to gather my team together and update them anyway. I’ll call you when we’re ready for you.” He dismisses me with a nod.

  I hurry after the nurse but stop and turn to find Rand. He’s already followed the general and Commander Svell back to the maps table. I shrug and continue out the door.

  We take the elevator back up and walk down more corridors. I come around a corner and run smack into Cam coming out of Kai’s room.

  I lean on the door jam and take a few breaths as I glare down at my brother.

  “Kai wants some red Jello. I’m going to go get some.” Cam triumphantly runs down the corridor.

  I shake my head. “He’s had way more sleep than I have.” I grin and go to stand next to Kai’s bed.

  Kai reaches for me and gently cups my face in his good hand and pulls me to him. He kisses me and I respond, all the pent-up worry and stress flowing away with that one kiss.

  I pull back far enough to focus on his face. “Hi.”

  “I’m so glad you’re all right.” A ripple of pain crosses his face.

  “Me? I’m fine. It’s you I’ve been worried about. What’s up with giving yourself over to the Unit? You scared the crap out of all of us. And look at you. What exactly did they do to you?” I run my fingers over his bandages and bruises.

  He looks down, following my fingers along his warm skin. “We were right, they’re trying to find the tunnels. The Chinese government didn’t sanction this group, but I still didn’t think they would actually do anything to me. I guess I was wrong.” He leans his head back on the pillow and closes his eyes.

  A nurse comes in and checks his vitals and bandages. I stand back and watch, wincing at how many wounds Kai has. His wrists where the bindings were are the worst, since they’re jagged and deep. But there are several deep cuts on his chest I didn’t see earlier. I draw shallow breaths to keep from throwing up as they uncover and re-bandage the raw skin.

  Cam steps back into the room just as they’re replacing the last bandage. He stops in his tracks, shock on his face. He then goes over to Kai and hands him the Jello. Kai takes it, but doesn’t say anything, still in pain from the poking and prodding.

  “Aren’t you mad at them for doing this to you?” Cam points at Kai’s bandages.

  “Well, I’m not happy about it.” He smiles weakly. “I think I’m more hurt emotionally — that my own people would do something like this.”

  I kiss Cam on the top of his head. “Cam, why don’t you sit down so I can update you and Kai before the general comes back.” I sit on the edge of Kai’s bed.

  “Yes. Please do. Starting with, how long was I asleep, and where are we?” Kai slowly eats the Jello that Cam brought him.

  I smile. “You were only asleep for about a day. But it was a really long day without you.” I glancing over at my brother, looking so small in the hospital chair. “Cam slept almost as long as you did.”

  I tell them of what happened down in the valley from my perspective. Cam then tells us how he and Rand made it a competition to see who could get closest to hitting the bird nests above the soldiers. We had a good laugh at Cam acting out his awesome baseball throws, while hiding from the soldier’s view. Then I update them on everything that has happened since the rescue; The Seven giving us the good news, the amazing map room, and that the fact that the Secretary of State is on her way here.

  “We all made it into the Academy? That’s great!” Kai sits up carefully.

  “Yes. That’s your doing, Kai. You not only proved that the New China students and New American Republic students can integrate into the border schools, but in the academies as well. You went out of your way to help us, and even if our governments both turn a blind eye to our situation here, the people running the Academies have not.” I give him a small smile. My chest squeezes as I try to figure out how to tell him the rest of our situation.

  I close my eyes and take a deep breath. I take his good hand in both of mine. “But we do have a problem that you’re not going to like.” I glance over at Cam who sits up straighter as both he and Kai turn their attention to me.

  “Worse than your Secretary of State coming here?” Kai asks weakly.

  “I’m afraid so.” I look into his deep brown eyes and brace myself before I tell Kai about his parents being captured.

  He comes unglued, as I expected. “Are you serious? They went after my parents? Why? They don’t know anything. All they know is that I was somehow helping my girlfriend and her little brother.” Kai tries to sit up. I place my arms around him to keep him in the hospital bed. In the struggle, his monitor alarms start going off, and several nurses rush into the room.

  23

  Death and Chaos

  In the midst of the chaos, with nurses putting tubes and sensors back in place, I lean over Kai and place my hands gently on both sides of his face. He stops his thrashing about. “Girlfriend? Did you just call me your girlfriend?” I whisper. My heart races, and I’m sure I have some sort of stupid look on my face.

  He goes still, his gaze focusing on me.

  My heart skips a beat as I wait to see if he’s going to regret it.

  He looks down at his newly taped IV. “I know we haven’t really talked about making it official. I’m sorry if I spoke out of turn.”

  “No, don’t be sorry. Unless you didn’t mean it.”

  He smiles up at me. “Oh, I most definitely meant it. I want to be with you all the time. I hate only seeing you at school or during the summers wh
en we have to meet in secret.” He leans forward and kisses me again. I ignore all the nurses fussing around, and just enjoy the moment. With my boyfriend. I love the sound of that.

  We break off when Cam tugs at my sleeve. “The general is coming. I hear him and a bunch of other people with him.”

  I pull back from Kai. “Okay, before they get here just know that I volunteered to show them where the tunnels are so they can rescue your parents. We have a plan. They have a special operations team here, the same one that rescued us down in the canyon.”

  I give him a look that is meant to say, don’t cross me, as the general knocks once before striding into the room. Cam sits back down with wide eyes as he looks up at the general.

  “Hope everyone is up to date now?” He looks at each of us in turn.

  We nod our heads.

  “Good. We have a team assembled downstairs, so we’ll need you to come with us, Anja.” I lean over and look behind him and see that the soldiers that followed him here are military police, not the officers we met in the map room.

  The general gestures toward the soldiers, who have stationed themselves outside the doorway. “They’re here to stand guard over young Mr. Tang until he’s well enough to travel.”

  “Are the guards necessary? Are we in danger here?” I ask.

  Kai struggles to sit up straight.

  The general shakes his head. “No, my staff tells me his wounds are quite severe. If you rip those stitches out of your chest, you could bleed to death. The guards are here to make sure you stay put.”

  I look at Kai, whose expression has darkened.

  “You need to stay put.” I grasp his hand. His eyes are filling with tears, and he roughly wipes his eyes with his good hand. “All I’m going to do is show them where to go.” I give him a weak smile.

  Kai squeezes my hand. “Good thing we made it into the Academy. Our tunnels will never be safe again.”

  Boots squeak on the hospital floor as the general turns toward the door. “Time to go. We need to get you back down to brief the team.”

  I lean in and kiss Kai again, to assure him I’ll be all right. “Listen to the nurses so you can heal fast. We leave for the Academy soon, remember?”

  I turn to find Rand standing alone in the doorway. He’s changed into an all-black uniform with the Earthlight Space Academy logo shining from the collar. It fits him very well.

  Then I notice that his head is lowered as he shuffles toward me. I see that the general has stopped out in the hallway and is whispering to Commander Svell.

  My heart starts beating faster. Oh, no. I can’t move my feet, and it seems like an eternity before Rand reaches us.

  “Rand? What’s wrong?” I squeeze Kai’s hand.

  He finally looks up and his eyes are filled with tears. He glances between Cam and me.

  I lean hard against the hospital bed. “My mom?” It’s the only thing I could think of that could be worse than what we’ve already gone through today.

  He pulls me into a hug. “Yes. I’m so sorry. Your mom’s fever got too high, and they couldn’t get it back down. They brought her here but couldn’t save her. She died a few minutes ago.”

  I feel Cam wrap his arms around me, and he burrows his head into my side, sobbing loudly.

  I twist around, so I can hug Cam. The grief of not only losing Mom but being responsible for Kai being hurt and his parents captured weighs me down. I feel heavy with sorrow. I slide to the floor holding Cam.

  Every tear-filled breath I take feels like gravity has increased, pulling on every part of me. Especially my heart. I guess I did have tears left. I grind my jaw as I hear people moving around. I wipe my face and stand up, pulling Cam with me.

  Kai has unhooked himself from the machines and is sitting up. I stumble forward, Cam still under my arm and wrap my arms carefully around Kai. Cam is blubbering so much; I worry he’s lost his body weight in tears. But Kai still holds on to both of us, despite the wetness soaking into his hospital gown and the pressure on his wounds. “I’m so sorry about your mom,” he whispers, his warm breath tickling my ear.

  I just nod. “I should’ve gone back for her. I thought we had more time.”

  “No, she wouldn’t have wanted you to put yourself and Cam in danger for her.”

  I just nod again and lean into Kai. I know he’s right, but it hurts not to have been there when she died. While I was below with the general, my mom was somewhere in this hospital dying alone. And part of me feels scared and a bit mad, because she left me to take care of Cam by myself.

  Kai gently tilts my head forward so he can see my face. “Why don’t you and Cam go say goodbye to her. You can’t change what’s happened, but you can get some closure for today.” Kai’s dark brown eyes pierce mine, willing me to come out of the dark cloud of grief.

  “I need to help the general get your parents away from their captors,” I whisper, my whole body shaking with the effort to stay together.

  “Anja, those men aren’t going to do anything to my parents yet. They’re making a statement, trying to force us to show them the tunnels. You have time to say goodbye to your mom.”

  I shake my head. “No. Look at what they did to you. Did those men seem like the type to wait around?”

  Kai looks away.

  “And it did cross my mind that they’re waiting for us to use the tunnels. But I have an idea to create a diversion. After we get your parents to safety, I don’t care if they know about the tunnels. Your parents’ lives are worth more.”

  He slowly looks back up at me, tears running down his face. “Thank you, Anja. For caring so much.” He wipes the tears away with his bandaged hand. “But I still think you can spare a few minutes to say goodbye to your mom first.”

  I lean my forehead to his. “I wish you could be there with me. I hate leaving you here alone.”

  “I hate being stuck here not knowing what’s going on with my parents.”

  “Oh, good grief,” Rand exclaims.

  I look over my shoulder to see him stalk out of the room. I hear arguing, and then angry whispering.

  I glance at Cam who just shrugs. His dried tears stain his sad face.

  Rand rushes back in pushing a grav chair. “Let’s get going.”

  “What?” I look between him and the chair.

  “Get Kai out of that bed and into this chair. We don’t have much time.” He glances over his shoulder.

  I start turning the machines off one by one. “What did you do, Rand?” I hiss.

  Rand helps me get Kai settled in the chair. I tuck a blanket around him. “What I needed to do to get your sorry selves out of here.”

  The four of us hurry out of the room. The guards are gone, and the nurses aren’t at their station. A shiver goes up my spine. I look up at Rand’s face and he has that look of stubborn determination. So, I follow his lead.

  We go up several floors in the elevator, and Rand pushes Kai’s wheelchair down the corridor. The wheels squeak on the shiny tile floor. I cringe at how loud it sounds in this empty corridor.

  “Where are we going?” I ask Rand.

  “Here.” He stops in front of a door. The small silver plate next to the door says “morgue.”

  My heart drops into my stomach. I look up at Rand. He steps back from the wheelchair. “Kai will be with you guys, you’ll be fine. You need to do this. I’ll wait right here for you.”

  Cam hugs himself to my side and I find I can’t say anything, so I just nod to Rand before I open the door.

  Inside it’s cold and smells more antiseptic than the rest of the hospital. There’s only one body in the room covered with a white sheet. Mom. I slowly push Kai into the room.

  Cam wraps his arms around me. I grab Kai’s hand. I pull back the sheet just enough so I can see her face. She looks peaceful, her pain and worries gone. Cam and I cry as we say our goodbyes.

  The reality that it’s just Cam and me now sinks into my bones like the cold in the morgue. I have no idea what to do now. I kn
ew this might happen soon, but I was so focused on getting into the Academy, I didn’t really think about it much.

  I hear the door open behind us and glance over my shoulder. Rand stands there, the general behind him. Rand’s expression softens when he sees Cam and me draped over my mom’s dead body. I straighten up and dry my tears.

  “Come on Cam. We need to go help Kai’s parents. We can’t do anything more for Mom.”

  Cam nods and wipes his nose on his sleeve. My heart breaks as I watch him pull himself together.

  We quietly follow the general back downstairs. He doesn’t say anything about us having Kai with us, or the fact that Rand somehow got rid of his guards.

  As we get closer to the briefing room, I try to compartmentalize everything we’ve gone through, so I can think clearly.

  We follow the general into the briefing room. It feels like the room has shrunk, because there are ten times the amount of uniforms here. The crowd parts, allowing us to walk directly to the maps table where Commander Svell stands surrounded by the other six commanders.

  I swallow and force my feet forward. My hands sweat as we walk past the wall of vids. I concentrate on the vegetation, the familiar farmhouses, and the small hills that lead up to the Wall.

  Then I realize I’ve lost Cam. Panicking, I let go of Kai’s grav chair to turn back toward the door.

  I find Cam just a few feet away from me, staring up at the wall of vids in awe. I shake my head. I forgot Cam hasn’t seen this room yet. Despite everything, he’s staring up at them grinning, the light gleaming in his bright blue eyes.

  24

  Getting Ready

  With a smile I didn’t think I’d see this soon, Cam cranes his neck to see everything around the room. He looks over at me. “This is where I want to work when I grow up.” He tilts his head. “Unless they have something like this in space, and then that’s where I want to work.” He doesn’t wait for me to answer before he bounds off to where he’s spotted Rand.