Earthlight Space Academy Boxset

by Heather Lee Dyer

  Katrina looks between Kai and me. “Oh. Are you guys dating?” Her eyes are wide.

  “All spacers are equal under space laws,” I answer, automatically defensive.

  “Yes, but not in the prep schools.” She turns her perfect face toward me.

  I shrug as Kai slips his hand in mine. “But we’re here now.”

  Her expression changes, and her eyes lose focus. All thoughts of jealousy stop in their tracks, and I frown. “Are you all right, Katrina?”

  Although she recovers quickly, her eyes are still moist. “It’s just there was this guy I liked back home.” She stops to take a deep breath. “Anyway, you two are lucky to have each other.”

  I make a mental note to talk to her about it later. I chock up my jealous feelings as insecurity on my part, and a natural friendliness on her part. With her looks and amazing personality, she’s a magnet for everyone’s attention.

  The dreaded ping from my tablet fills the air just then and both Kai and I twitch. Katrina frowns and stares at us.

  I look at Kai as I bring my tablet up and notice that I have a new message. He automatically takes it and taps it open. I watch his face carefully as it slowly clouds over. He opens his mouth to say something, but then stops as he realizes Katrina is still with us.

  I have a quick debate with myself in my head. Finally, I turn to Katrina. “I have a bit of a problem with a cyber stalker.” I frown deeply, and my heart races as I wonder what the message says this time.

  Her mouth forms a perfect “O” as she looks at me. “I’m sorry.” She tilts her head. “It’s not Josh, is it?”

  I hesitate, because as much as I dislike Josh, I know it can’t be him. “No. We’re actually having a hard time tracking the stalker down. They’re from outside of the academy.” I turn over the tablet to show her the square tracker.

  “Wow. I haven’t seen one of those in a while.”

  “You’ve seen one of these?”

  She nods, her hair bouncing around her face. “My older brother went to work with the SIA after he graduated. He shows me all sorts of fun tech just to show off.” She smiles, making the whole situation somehow more manageable.

  “Sounds like my brother, but he’s only eleven and already likes to show off,” I say, grinning.

  Katrina takes a step toward the door. “Maybe we should get the two of them together.”

  Kai and I, hand in hand, follow her out. “I’m not sure where my brother will end up. He seems to be interested in everything.” Although I really can’t imagine Cam as a spy. He’s too exuberant and likes to talk too much. I smile over at Kai as I remember the commander’s advice to call him tonight on Kai’s tablet.

  The three of us ride the lift to the residential area. Katrina waves at us as she heads to our dorm. Kai and I head to one of the lounges spaced evenly outside the cafeteria. They’re meant for studying, and possibly for overflow if the cafeteria is too full. We settle into one of the empty couches, and Kai pulls out his tablet.

  “Do you want to read your message first?” he asks.

  “No. Afterwards. Cam would be able to see right through me, and I don’t want him to know anything is wrong.”

  Kai plants a kiss on my forehead and types in the code to reach Cam.

  An elderly Chinese gentleman answers. I smile. All this time, even with Cam living with the Tangs, I’ve only talked to him on a cell phone. This is the first time to put a face to the name.

  “Hello, Father. How are you?” To me, Kai’s greeting seems very formal.

  “Very well, mijo,” he says, carefully pronouncing each word.

  Kai and I look at each other.

  I laugh. “Mr. Tang, Cam’s been teaching you Spanish, hasn’t he?”

  Mr. Tang’s whole face lights up. “Yes. Young Mr. Cameron is quite a delight to have around the house. And please, call me Deng. I go by Deng Chao these days.”

  I frown. “I’m sorry again you were forced out of your country.”

  “No worries. Your government has set me up with a great facility to continue my research.”

  I look at Kai. He’s smiling proudly at his father.

  Cam pops his head over Mr. Chao’s shoulder. “Hey guys!”

  My heart swells as I study my brother. He’s had his hair cut, finally, and he looks healthy. “Hey, Cam. Just wanted to say hi while we had a few minutes.”

  Mr. Chao bows to Kai and stands up to let Cam sit in front of the vid.

  Cam leans forward, his whole face filling the screen on Kai’s tablet. “Tell me about your project. Have you started it yet?”

  I narrow my eyes at him. “How do you know we have a project, and why are you interested?” Cam’s fascinated in a great many things, but I really haven’t had a chance to talk to him about my life here at the academy.

  “They’ve talked about it at school. They said we’ll have projects each year at the academy that will be a huge part of our grade.” His eyes widen.

  “You’re too smart for your own good.” I laugh and lean into Kai’s warm shoulder. “Yes, our project is to create a miniature spaceship.” I grin, knowing that will open a flood gates of questions.

  I’m not disappointed. We talk for almost an hour before Kai and I start yawning and tell Cam we need to get some sleep. We say our goodbyes, and Kai’s tablet goes dark.

  As tired as I am, the tightness in the pit of my stomach from knowing I have an anonymous message to read still remains. I look at Kai and pick up my tablet. He stays quiet as I open the message and read it.

  The message says, “You sure that was a fire drill?”

  I look at Kai. “He’s confirming he was the one who set off that fire alarm, isn’t he?”

  “I think so,” says Kai darkly.

  “We really need to figure out who this is. If they can get into the academy systems like that, who knows what they’re capable of doing?” A knot of tension starts in my shoulders.

  “Also, why they’re doing this. It’s obviously someone who knows you and Cam. But what reason would they have to terrorize you and threaten to track down your brother?”

  “And what do they want with him? He’s eleven years old and isn’t a threat to anyone.”

  I yawn again, and Kai pulls me to my feet. “We aren’t going to figure it out tonight. Let’s get some sleep and talk about it more at lunch tomorrow.”

  Once in the residential corridor voices make me stop in my tracks. “Josh and Alex,” I whisper.

  Kai lets go of my hand to wrap an arm around my waist. The overhead lights dim giving us our half hour warning to be in our dorms.

  I wonder what would happen if we weren’t in our dorms at lights out.

  We slowly start walking, and I realize we don’t really have any other choice. Where would we go? We can’t leave the academy building without proper credentials.

  As expected, Josh, Alex, Katrina, Sam and the rest of their gang are sprawled out on the couches in the main area. We skirt the main area and stop in front of the locked door of Kai’s dorm.

  Just as I’m about to cross to my dorm, scuffling sounds indicate someone is standing up. “Your boy Rand has to answer to me now,” says Josh. “Should be an interesting year.”

  I slowly turn. Josh is smirking at me. I grind my teeth together.

  “That’s right. I made sure my group voted me as leader. Now I’m in charge of him.”

  “He’s still class leader,” Kai says quietly beside me.

  “This project is for the whole year. Leadership changes quarterly.” He snorts.

  I exchange a glance with Kai, hoping he understands to stay quiet. “See you in the morning,” I whisper.

  “Soon he’ll be nothing around here.”

  I look back at Josh and he takes a step toward us.

  Katrina puts a hand on his arm, and he stops, looking down at her in confusion.

  It’s enough to break the conversation and I head to my dorm. As I let myself in, I look sideways in time to see Kai slip safely into his do
rm.

  I hurry to my room and let myself in. After making sure the door is sealed behind me, I throw my backpack on the floor and press my forehead into the cool metal of the door.

  How are we going to get through the whole year like this?

  Running into Josh makes me realize I haven’t seen Rand since we broke up into project groups. I’m sure he wasn’t happy being put with Josh, but where is he now? Josh’s words didn’t give any hint that any physical altercations took place. I pick up my tablet and message him. “You all right?”

  A quick reply comes, “Just cooling down in my room.”

  “Good. Josh is out in the main area. Sorry you ended up with him for the project.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to need some serious ideas on how to work with this guy without ruining my chances here.”

  “Meet at lunch at our table. We need to discuss my other issue too.”

  “Will do. Gnight, Anja.”

  “Night.”

  I set my tablet to wake me earlier than normal in the morning and double check that my door is locked. As I fall asleep, I think I hear a quiet knock on the door, but I’m too tired to do anything about it.

  I drag myself out of bed the next morning feeling more tired than I should. I quickly take a shower and am dressed before any of the girls are even stirring. I find a chair along the common area wall and sit down so I can watch for Kai. Since I have a few minutes, I pull out my tablet and start doing research on materials for our spaceship project. I know how spaceships are designed, but I’ve never thought much about what they’re made of, other than obviously some sort of metal.

  I also pull up the specs for the project and memorize each requirement. The parts are pretty simple for this size ship so it shouldn’t be hard to 3D print them. I make notes for each section of the project: hull design, navigation and electrical, and propulsion. I send out a message to the others to find out which group they’d prefer to be in. We had forgotten about propulsion when we first met.

  Kai exits with a few other students. He comes and sits next to me. “Any more messages?”

  “No, thank goodness.”

  “Then what are you working on?” He leans over to check my tablet. I pull it to my chest with mock surprise. “You can’t cheat off my project. You’re the competition.”

  He laughs, a deep rumble that gives me goose bumps. He kisses me and leans back. “It is weird not working on the project together.”

  I bump shoulders with him. “At least we get to see each other every day. And don’t have to sneak around. Or crawl through tunnels.”

  He turns so he’s facing me. “Yes, I am very thankful for that.” He gives me a thorough kiss.

  Which leaves me grinning like an idiot when Josh and Alex walk out. Kai winks at me, and I duck my head.

  The two guys plop down in a couch across the room from us. Probably waiting for Katrina and Sam. It’s strange Sam still has never talked to me, although Katrina has been nice enough.

  “Do you want to go now?” asks Kai in my ear.

  “I think we should wait for Rand first. I have to go to the greenhouse now for first period, so it would be a good idea for the two of you to walk to class together.”

  Kai’s expression darkens. “What about you?”

  “Josh doesn’t know that I’m going to the greenhouse level now. His class is just down from yours, so he shouldn’t be anywhere near the lift or corridors that I’ll have to take.”

  Kai doesn’t look convinced.

  “I’ll be careful,” I assure him. “It’s Rand I’m worried about. He’s Josh’s main target. We need to find some way of getting him off Josh’s radar.”

  “Give him some sort of bio-engineered virus so he’s sent home?” Kai suggests.

  I turn to look at him. “Seriously?”

  His serious expression breaks down into a grin.

  I elbow him, my eyes wide. “That’s some deep medically dark humor. For you.”

  “Got to keep you on your toes. I don’t want you to get tired of me.”

  My heart skips a beat. “There’s no way I could get tired of you. I’m the one who’s boring.”

  “I don’t think crossing three hundred miles on foot, surviving in a tent for years, going up against Unit 29824, and then assisting the New American Republic army to rescue my parents is boring.”

  My face warms. “But you’ve lived in a glamorous big city, been a model adored by millions, and experienced way more of the world than I have.”

  He chuckles. “I think we’ve still got more stories to tell each other.”

  “That might take a while,” I say, trying to look serious.

  “Good. Then that means we’ll just have to be together for a long time in order to get all the stories told.” He grins widely, making tingles race up my spine.

  12

  Threat

  “Am I interrupting something?”

  Kai and I look up. Rand is standing in front of us.

  “You look a bit more rested today,” I say as I stand.

  He shrugs.

  Josh and Alex get up when the girls walk out of our dorm. Katrina waves at me as she crosses the room. Sam just watches Josh’s back as they walk down the corridor. The look on her face makes me think of a lost puppy. She must have a crush on him. And he doesn’t even seem to notice.

  “Now we can go.” I smile at Kai.

  The three of us walk slowly down the corridor, in no hurry to overtake Josh’s group. I walk them to the door of their biology room and make sure Josh goes in his class before I turn to Kai.

  “Have fun, see you next class,” I say. I lean in to kiss him on the cheek.

  Kai glances at Josh’s class before turning toward his own. “Just be careful.”

  I nod and hurry against the tide of students as I run toward the far lift.

  Several other students ride the lift all the way to the greenhouse level as well. As I follow them through the glass corridor and across the walkway to the greenhouse I start wondering if they’re in my class.

  As the three of us stand outside the sealed door, I smile at the girl next to me. “Are you here for class too?”

  She passes her tablet over the door sensor. “Yes. We’ve been here since the beginning of the semester. I’m Sandy. I interned at a GMO research center before I was accepted into the academy.”

  “That must’ve been fascinating,” I say as I pass my tablet over the sensor. The two of us step in and wait for the third student. After he passes his tablet over the sensor, logging him into the greenhouse, he turns toward us.

  My heart sinks. I recognize him as one of the other kids in Josh’s group. Now Josh will know where I am first period. Kai was right to be worried.

  “I’m Lon. My dad owned most of the farms in former Oregon.” His tone is dark and venomous. “Now he works at the GMO research center.” He nods toward Sandy.

  Sandy pauses and slides an unfathomable look at Lon, maybe at the tone in his voice. She looks between us for a long moment before turning toward me. “That’s how we know each other, from the research center. Our space prep school isn’t too far from there, so most of the kids in our school had some relation that worked there.” She narrows her gaze at Lon but then turns and hurries down the path. He follows, and I slowly take up the rear.

  A tall woman greets us at the end of the path. She has her long gray hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and is wearing a dirt-smeared apron. “Good morning.” She looks at me. “I’m Ms. Germain.”

  We follow her into a small classroom that I didn’t notice when I was up here last. There are only a few chairs around a beat-up wooden table and a smart board on one wall. The rest of the room has workbenches with plants, containers, test tubes, and gardening tools spread out on them.

  “You must be Anja. I heard your teacher wasn’t quite sure what to do with you.” Her vivid green eyes twinkle as she turns her full attention on me.

  My face warms as I sink into one of the chairs. “Ye
s, ma’am.”

  She reaches into a cupboard next to her desk and hands me an apron. “Well, we could always use help up here. Hope you don’t mind getting dirty.”

  Lon snickers. I ignore him. “No, ma’am. Not at all. I’ve been working in fields for the last five years.” I glare at Lon. His smirk fades to surprise.

  “Excellent.” Ms. Germain hands me gloves. “In that case I hope you’re not tired of the dirt.” She winks at me.

  I grin. “Nope. This place is amazing.”

  “Let’s get started then. We’re preparing science experiments for the newest science space station coming online at the end of the month.” She turns to Sandy. “Can you explain to Miss Toland what we’ve been working on?”

  Sandy stands up and ties her plastic apron around her thin middle. “Our goal is to make sure every spaceship out of our system has a successful greenhouse on board. We’ve found a few issues with long-term growth in an enclosed dome.”

  “And we’re the only academy working on this?”

  Sandy nods.

  “Every academy has a different focus on bringing Earth plants and animals into space, but ours is the only one working on this particular issue,” explains Ms. Germain.

  She leads us out of the classroom and down one of the gravel paths. We stop at the clearing with the benches and pond where Kai, Rand, and I visited. She steps next to one of the large trees.

  “As the vegetation matures, the root system becomes a problem. In order to grow this tall the roots need to grow deep and wide.”

  I look up at the tree. It’s not as tall as most of the trees in the mountains surrounding Hells Canyon. “But these aren’t that tall.” I point to the ceiling. “Do they grow too tall for the domes sometimes?”

  She nods. “Yes. Even though we use trees that are smaller species, we still only have so much depth and weight we can carry on a spaceship.”

  “Some of the proposed missions will take colonists outside of our galaxy. They’ll have storage for seeds and animal embryos, but we also want to have live plants to transplant right away,” says Sandy.

  “And so far, the mature trees are dying before they even get to the Fringe,” says Lon grumpily.